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Policies and guidance
This section contains links to a wide range of policy, legislation guidance and resources to support practitioners in their safeguarding role.
On this page:
- Legislation
- The Mental Capacity Act 2005
- Useful websites and documents
- Working principles
- Multi-Agency Risk Management (MARM)
- Service Quality Feedback form
- Hoarding protocol and toolkit
- Person In a Position of Trust
- Forensic medical examination of adults
- ERSAB policies & guidance
- 'What if'...cards
- National and regional policies and guidance
- Safeguarding Adult Review Procedure
Legislation
Care Act 2014
The law that people working with adults need to follow is The Care Act 2014. This protects adults who might be less able to keep themselves safe, like elderly, or adults with additional needs. The ERSAB checks that adults are being looked after properly and that the law of the Care Act 2014 is being followed.
Making Safeguarding Personal (MSP)
Making Safeguarding Personal is an initiative which aims to develop an ‘outcome focus’ to safeguarding work and a range of responses to support people to improve or resolve their circumstances. MSP in its simplest form means putting the person at the centre of everything we do during a safeguarding enquiry, from the very beginning to the very end. MSP seeks to achieve:
- A personalised approach that enables safeguarding to be done with, not to, people.
- Practice that focuses on achieving meaningful improvement to people’s circumstances rather than just on ‘investigation’ and ‘conclusion’.
- An approach that utilises social work skills rather than just ‘putting people through a process’.
- An approach that enables practitioners, families, teams and safeguarding adult boards to know what difference has been made.
What does Making Safeguarding Personal (MSP) look like?
The approaches of agencies and services to adult safeguarding should be person-led and outcome-focused.
The Care Act 2014 emphasises a personalised approach to adult safeguarding that is led by the individual, not by the process. It is vital that the adult feels that they are the focus and they have control over the process. Making Safeguarding Personal (MSP) is not simply about gaining an individual’s consent, although that is important, but also about hearing people’s views about what they want as an outcome. This means that people are given opportunities at all stages of the safeguarding process to say what they would like to change. This might be about not having further contact with a person who poses a risk to them, changing an aspect of their care plan, asking that someone who has hurt them apologises, or pursuing the matter through the criminal justice system.
Operationally, how will this safeguard adults with care and support needs?
Making Safeguarding Personal is not about putting you through a process, it is about having a conversation with you or your representative to ask what has happened.
We will:
- ask if you require any immediate support to keep yourself safe
- explain how safeguarding works
- ask you what you would like to happen. Support you in a way to give you choice and control to improve your quality of life, wellbeing, and safety.
We promise to:
- listen to you
- understand your views and wishes
- take you seriously
- treat you with respect
- support you to feel as safe as you want
- support you to make your own decisions
- keep you informed and involved
- tell you what will happen next.
Making Safeguarding Personal Easy Read - ERSAB
Making Safeguarding Personal Outcome Summary ERSAB
For further details relating to Making Safeguarding Personal please visit the websites listed in the Useful links section below.
Professional Escalation and Resolution Practice Guidance
The Professional Resolution Practice Guidance is for use by practitioners from all agencies with safeguarding responsibilities.
This guidance has been jointly agreed by the Hull and East Riding Safeguarding Children Partnerships, and the Hull and East Riding Safeguarding Adult Partnership Boards.
Please download the guidance as a PDF via the button below:
The MCA helps and protects people who have limited mental capacity to make decisions. This includes people who have limited capacity due to illness, injury or disability. The MCA aims to help these people to make decisions or to be involved in decisions as much as possible.
Mental Capacity Act Codes of Practice
GOV.UK - Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice
Mental Capacity Assessment Form March 22 (word 58kb)
Safer Recruitment (DBS)
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) was established under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 and merges the functions previously carried out by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA). The DBS is responsible for the following processes:
Disclosure – the DBS searches police records and, in relevant cases, barred list information, and then issues a DBS certificate to the applicant and employer to help them make an informed recruitment decision.
Referrals – Referrals are made to the DBS when an employer or an organisation, for example, a regulatory body, has concerns that a person has caused harm or poses a future risk of harm to vulnerable groups including children. In these circumstances the employer legally must or regulatory body may, make a referral to the DBS.
Barring – the DBS makes its decisions using barring decision-making processes specifically developed for this use and approved by the DBS Board. The barring decision-making processes for considering discretionary (non-automatic barring) cases have been developed to ensure all DBS decisions are fair, consistent and thorough.
See below for the ERSAB DBS Guidance:
ERSAB DBS Referral for Barring Procedure Guidance 2021 (pdf 824kb)
For further information please visit the Disclosure and Barring Service website.
Working principles
ERSAB multi-agency procedures for responding to adults at risk of harm and abuse
ERSAB Multi-agency Procedures for Responding to Adults at Risk of Harm and Abuse (word 2.3mb)
Document updated: 24 July 2026
Provider of significant concern
For the management and improvement of performance; provider support; escalation of safeguarding and organisational abuse concerns, within residential and nursing care homes, domiciliary care providers and other commissioned health and social care providers in the East Riding of Yorkshire. A Provider of significant Concern procedure will be available soon.
Multi-Agency Risk Management (MARM)
The MARM process provides a framework for professionals to facilitate effective multi-agency working with adults at risk of harm, who are deemed to have mental capacity and who are at risk of serious harm or death through self-neglect, refusal of services and/or high levels of risk taking activity.
Evaluation of the MARM process
To support the ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the Multi-Agency Risk Management (MARM) process, delegates are kindly requested to complete a post-meeting survey following each MARM meeting. The feedback collected will assist the East Riding Safeguarding Adults Board (ERSAB) in reviewing and assessing the effectiveness of the process, ensuring continuous improvement and accountability.
Service Quality Feedback form
A Service Quality Feedback form should be used when a low-level concern is identified (i.e. isolated incident, no harm-low risk, no complicating factors) regarding how a client’s care is being provided. If you or the service user have concerns about the quality or safety of the service/provider. Low level concerns or issues identified should be addressed directly with the provider initially if appropriate alongside completing a Service Quality Feedback form.
Hoarding protocol and toolkit
Self-neglect is an extreme lack of self-care, and it is sometimes associated with hoarding and may be a result of other issues such as addictions. Practitioners in the community, from housing officers to social workers, police and health professionals can find working with people who self-neglect extremely challenging. The important thing is to try to engage with people, to offer all the support we are able to without causing distress, and to understand the limitations to our interventions if the person does not wish to engage.
ERSAB and its partners have created a Hoarding Protocol and Toolkit to help professionals deal with the issue of hoarding.
Useful Documents and General Information
MCA and Hoarding
Caselaw judgements
Theory, research and reading
Website links
Interventions
How to refer into Hoarding Group
Training Resources
Person in a Position of Trust (PiPoT)
Person in a position of trust report
Use this form to report a concern regarding a person in a position of trust (PiPoT).
Person in a position of trust (PiPoT) policy
The person in a position of trust policy below builds upon existing relevant statutory provisions for sharing information and responding to concerns about a person in a position of trust.
Alongside the policy there are helpful supplementary documents, which are in the form of a flowchart, one-minute guide, support document and reporting form.
Forensic Medical Examination of Adults
Across North Lincolnshire and East Riding of Yorkshire Safeguarding Adults Partnerships a pilot project is operating in the area of Forensic Examination of adults.
A Forensic Medical Examination of Adults Inter-agency Policy has been created to provide an outline of the process that will be undertaken in relation to the consideration of, examination and reporting when adults at risk of harm have sustained an injury due to physical abuse or neglect and outline the governance framework that supports the pilot.
The aim of the project is to provide consistent service delivery with agreed coordinated response times and effective communication with relevant system partners, including with two Local Authorities and Humberside Police.
This policy applies to all staff undertaking forensic examinations for adults and any staff members involved in any part of the process including decision making panels.
Please see below for the Forensic Examination of Adults Inter-agency Policy:
Multi-agency Forensic Examiner Policy
A patient information leaflet is also available to understand more about the Forensic Medical Examination:
Patient Information Leaflet Forensic Medical Examination
This is also available in Easy Read. Please see below:
Forensic Medical Examination Easy Read Leaflet
Forensic Pilot Evaluation - Final Evaluation Report for NHSE - 31 March 2023
Sexual Assault of Adults who Lack the Capacity to Consent to a Sexual Assault Referral Centre
Humber Safeguarding Adults Forensic Project
Policy and guidance documents
ERSAB policy and guidance
Report a concern
01377 241273
amhp.outofhoursteam@eastriding.gov.uk